It's funny how, when "obvious" techniques in various parts of day-to-day life are (re)discovered in computer science, they often become Big News. Think about object orientation, structured programming, pattern languages, and a host of user interface ideas. All well-known decades ago (in some cases millennia ago), developed by forgotten individuals who had to organize large numbers of people to perform complex tasks.

So what other commonplace organizational ideas could add value to computer software?